Mikko Lehtonen Traded

 

We have a trade to announce……Sorry I had to do it, I decided to give this a separate post instead of lumping it into my article Sunday following Saturday’s result. Yesterday evening GM Kyle Dubas and the Columbus Blue Jackets talked trade and agreed to a deal where Toronto would send Defenseman Mikko Lehtonen to the Jackets in exchange for Finish goalie prospect Veini Vehviläinen.

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Lehtonen who had played for Jokerit of the KHL where he was the top defenseman last year and picking up 17 points in all 17 games he appeared in before heading to Toronto where he unfortunately could not find a consistent spot in the Leafs line up only collecting 3 assists in just 9 games. Now readers might look at this as a failed signing or a waste of a prospect but put yourself in Coach Keefe’s shoes for a minute and ask yourself “where do I place him?”. Obviously he isn’t going to replace either Reilly or Brodie the play from that pair speaks for itself, The second pairing of Holl and Muzzin has been reliable all season despite Muzzing playing with a broken bone in his face and Holl struggling a little in these recent games, And finally I think Keefe likes the play of Dermott and Bogosian paired together because you have Dermott who can jump into the play offensively and that leaves Bogosian to play the stay at home role where he can play a physical defensive minded game.

 

With Lehtonen’s last appearance as a Maple Leaf coming February 24^th in the overtime win against the visiting Flames to me this trade was done simply to help the player develop whether it is with John Torterella and the Blue Jackets or their AHL affiliate the Cleveland Monsters Lehtonen will move to a situation where he will hopefully receive regular playing time. Also, another thing to consider regarding this trade Rasmus Sandin is close to returning from his fractured foot he suffered at the start of the season with the Toronto Marlies as well as Timothy Liljegren has collected 7 points in 9 games this season so far so in my opinion if there happens to be an injury on the blue line Toronto is going to give their young defensemen an opportunity to prove themselves but obviously time will tell.

 

Now in return as I mentioned The Leafs receive goalie Veini Vehviläinen has had little to playing time here in North America but Internationally he has found success winning a Gold Medal at the 2019 World Championships too go along with is Gold at the 2016 World Juniors and a Silver Medal at the 2015 U-18’s respectfully. Now he has bounced around the Finish pro league this year with JYP Jyväskylä in 13 games he has a record of 3-7-3 with a GAA and an 890 save percentage his best season in Finland came back in the 18-19 season with Oulun Kärpät where he backstopped the team to 25 wins a GAA of 1.58 and a 933% he would follow that performance up with 11 post season victories an average once again under 2 this time at 1.47 and a save percentage of 936.

Now fans and readers will look at this and say, “but look at this season’s numbers” and the answer simply is yea they are not good but at 24 years of age there’s potential he can turn his play around. As we all know this is entirely my opinion as I have no idea what Kyle has planned for his team and players but with the Leafs adding a goalie he can now be paired with Joseph Woll, and the division leading Marlies can get some reassurance in goal because they have had to sign goalies to amateur try outs to fill a spot due to Woll being up with the Leafs due to goalie injuries.

So I hope this gave fans an idea as to why this trade was made and what our Maple Leafs are acquiring I will be back Sunday with my next article following the result of tonight’s game.